We take a quick look at the .480 Ruger cartridge, Bill Ruger’s handheld namesake.

After a half-century of production, millions of shooters use Bill Ruger’s firearms—but only one very special pistol cartridge bears the man’s name. The .480 Ruger was never intended to be the biggest and heaviest-recoiling handgun cartridge on the block. It splits the difference between the .44 Remington Magnum and .454 Casull cartridges.

Using a Hornady 325-grain XTP Magnum bullet (diameter 0.475 inch) and Hornady brass, the .480 Ruger offers a significant velocity and energy increase over the .44 Remington Magnum cartridge, but without the recoil disadvantage of other super-powered handgun cartridges.

The key to delivering the two-thirds of a ton of muzzle energy is a well-reasoned balance among bullet weight, velocity and operating pressure, in a cartridge derived from the venerable .45-70 case.

The cartridge is chambered in Ruger’s rugged double-action six-shooter, the Super Redhawk, which wears an integral scope mounting system on the top strap. It has served big-game handgun hunters and metallic silhouette target shooters with distinction.

.480 ruger Factory Ballistics:

Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt of Gun Digest’s Cartridge’s Of The World.

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